The heavyweight division is being held up because someone is playing games.
“That’s not me, that’s someone else at the top of the division,” interim champion Tom Aspinall said on his YouTube channel (transcribed by MMA Fighting). “It’s not me. I’m here to fight people. [I] love this stuff, this is what I was born to do, this is what I wanted to do since the year started — since the last fight against Pavlovich — I’ve wanted to get back in there.”
Aspinall was calling for the promotion to strip Jon Jones of the 265-pound strap after “Bones” got injured and delayed his Stipe Miocic title defense. When the promotion plans to rebook that battle remains to be seen, but Jones claims to already have a date.
“Bit of a strange conundrum with my division,” Aspinall continued. “Usually, when the champ is coming back, the interim [champion] would obviously fight the champ. Jon Jones is holding sh*t up, let’s be honest. He’s playing games, so me and Curtis Blaydes though. We have history, we fought before — granted it was 15 seconds, it wasn’t an actual fight. I got injured, Curtis takes the win, but now it’s time to get a bit of payback.”
With Jones on the sidelines until further notice, Aspinall will battle No. 4-ranked title contender Curtis Blaydes in the UFC 304 pay-per-view (PPV) co-main event, scheduled for Sat., July 27, 2024 at Co-op Live in Manchester, England.
“If I’m not going to fight Jon, which obviously that’s not going to happen right now, this is the ideal situation,” Aspinall explained. “So [I’m] very, very happy, very, very motivated, for it. I’m going to put absolutely everything into the training camp, absolutely everything into the lifestyle, and, yeah, looking forward to it very much.”
A victory over Blaydes is likely to guarantee Aspinall a shot at the winner of Jones vs. Miocic ... if and when that fight ever happens.
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